10 Most Expensive Divorce Settlements

Instability in a marriage can obviously lead to divorce, which in some cases is extremely expensive. It is easy to fall in love, since that has no price at all, but falling out of it can cost an arm and a leg. Some of the most common and media hyped divorces that we see today, emerge from the world of celebrities. The juice and the spice are always in the settlement. Who got how much, who cheated who and who is in more misery, is always the spice in tabloids that we look for. However, it is always a shocking revelation for the common man to read the absolutely crazy amount the of the divorce settlement. Here we have compiled for you a list of some of the most expensive divorce settlements.

1. Rupert Murdoch and Anna Murdoch -- $1.7 billion

This divorce settlement is reportedly known to be one of the most outrageously expensive divorce settlements in history. He is considered to be one of the world’s richest men who formed his worldwide media empire when he inherited his father’s, Keith Murdoch’s, Australian newspaper in 1952. In 1967, Murdoch married Anna Torv, an Estonian-born cadet journalist who was working for one of his newspapers. The couple remained together for 32 years, and had three children. In 1998, the two split up, after Anna discovered that Murdoch was having an affair with a junior executive at Star TV. Anna Torv won about $1.7 billion assets and some $110 million in cash, in the divorce settlement. Murdoch and his mistress, Wendi Deng, were married precisely seventeen days after his divorce from Torv was legalized. That same year, Anna Murdoch also married again to William Mann. They both seemed rather quick to get married again after a marriage of 32 years!

2. Adnan Khashoggi and Soraya Khashoggi -- $874 million

Adnan Khashoggi is a Saudi Arabian businessman who made all of his fortunes as an international arms dealer for the Saudi royal family. Later on, he began a company by the name of Triad which was based in Switzerland; he owned banks, hotels and real estate practically all over the globe. By 1986, his total fortune was estimated to be around $4 billion. However, a decade later, it was reported that he had lost most of his fortunes due to the deteriorating oil prices. He married Soraya Khashoggi in 1961, she was only 20 then, and her name was changed to Soraya from Sandra Daly. Conversely, their ever so social rocketing lifestyle privileged a series of adulterous lovers for both of them. By 1982, we presume both of them had enough of all the media watch dogs over their extra martial affairs that a divorce was initiated unanimously by both the parties. The divorce settlement in their case amounted to Soraya getting nearly $872 million.

3. Craig McCaw and Wendy McCaw -- $460 million

Craig and Wendy met each other when they were studying at the Stanford University in California. A year after graduating from university, in 1974, the two got married and began a blissful courtship period of nearly 22 years. By 1998, differences between the couple began to emerge to an extent, where the couple decided to end their marriage. In their case the settlement was agreed upon to be $460 million. one everything was finalized, Wendy was put on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans, however she soon dropped off the list after a very short run.

4. Roman Abramovich and Irina Abramovich -- $300 million

The third richest man in Russia, Roman Abramovich, was once just a struggling businessman. In 1990, he met the beautiful Irina, who was an Aeroflot flight attendant. The two got married, and while married, he made a fortune for himself. After seventeen years of being together, Roman Abramovich, filed for divorce from Irina. The news of the two getting a divorce sparked waves of scandalous news all over the world. The main reason for the scandal was that he was in love with a twenty year old socialite, named Daria Zhukova. Roman Abramovich negotiated the initial $7 billion claim down to a little cash, a few assets such as homes, a plane and a yacht. All of which amounted to $300 million.

5. Michael Jordan and Juanita Jordan -- $ 168 million

Michael Jordan and Juanita Jordan married in 1989 and continued a happy courtship for 17 long years. In 2002, the couple filed for divorce; however, the annulment of their marriage did not take place then. Four years later, they again filed for divorce and this time around they actually ended up in getting it. The divorce settlement cost nearly $168 million. It is reported that Michael was caught having an alleged affair with Karla Knafel, who argued that Jordan was the father of her child. Later on, it was confirmed that the child was not Jordan’s, but he did have an affair with Karla Knafel. On the other hand, Juanita was rumored to be having a relationship with a 26 year old man. The marriage was a sure shot doom!

6. Neil Diamond and Marcia Murphey -- $150 million

The legendary singer Neil Diamond and his second wife, Marcia Murphy, divorced in 1994 after a marriage of 33 years. The reason for their divorce was because Marcia Murphey believed that the couple had actually developed irreconcilable differences. There were rumors of Neil Diamond’s infidelity, moreover he was famous for having one night stands and the media nearly always caught a story on it. After filing for divorce, the settlement cost nearly $150 million, half of Diamond’s fortune. Diamond has been quoted saying that Marcia “earned every penny” and that “she’s been through thick and thin with [him] and deserves half of [his] fortune”.

7. Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison -- $118 million

The divorce of Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison has been estimated to be around $118 million. The couple got married in the year 1983. In 2004, the two called it quits and at last ended their 20 year long married life. Before the couple was divorced, Harrison and Melissa had already been separated for four years. He was in a relationship with Calista Flockhart, which was very well publicized even before his divorce with Melissa took place. Ford went to the extent of adopting Flockhart’s son, Liam, well before his divorce also. Finally in 2004, the much humiliated Melissa Mathison filed for a divorce and freed herself from a bad marriage and the obvious humiliation that it was bringing towards her.

8. Greg Norman and Laura Andrassy -- $103 million

In 1981, Greg Norman, the famous golfer, married Laura Andrassy, who was a flight attendant.Their marriage of nearly 25 years gave them two children: Morgan Leigh and Gregory. However, in May 2006, Norman announced that he was going to divorce Andrassy.At that time he refused to comment on the reasons for his divorce. Yet, while filing for the divorce, Laura Andrassy claimed that Norman was having an illicit affair with Chris Evert and that was the reason for their marriage’s demise. The golf legend, Norman, was forced to carve out a settlement of $103 million. Once their divorce took place, Chris Evert ended her 18 year old marriage with Andy Mills. Certainly things were bound to get a little dirty. Andy Mills openly blamed Norman in the press, for being the cause of his divorce and causing such traumatic heart ache.

9. Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving -- $100 million

The massive expenditure on the agreement, filing and ultimately the settlement of the divorce of this couple is estimated to be $100 million. The couple dated for three years before getting married in 1985. Sadly though, just four years into the marriage and they called it quits in 1989. The proceedings of the much media hyped divorce became a little divisive when the judge vacated a prenuptial agreement which was chalked out on a napkin.

10. Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva -- $80 million

Before making his name and fortune with films such as The Untouchables, Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves and JFK, Kevin Costner met Cindy Silva while he was attending California State University at Fullerton. The couple got married in 1978. In the 90’s, the media and the press started to report Costner’s visible and obvious acts of infidelities. However, restaurateur Cindy Silva was utterly determined to make their marriage work. We guess all her relentless efforts failed and the couple finally settled for a divorce that estimated $80 million.